Connecticut DEEP announces $60,000 in municipal recycling grants

Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has announced that seven communities are being awarded more than $60,000 in grants to enhance local waste reduction, reuse and recycling programs.

“Congratulations to these seven towns for advancing their municipal recycling systems and demonstrating a commitment to a 21st century materials management strategy,” says DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee. “These communities are taking advantage of DEEP’s resources to further reduce the volume of trash we dispose of, conserve natural resources and find value in our waste stream.”

Klee says the grants are made possible through DEEP’s Recycling Incentive Grants Program. Through his program, funding is available for municipalities with existing outstanding waste reduction and recycling programs (applications due on or before Feb. 1, 2016) and for municipalities interested in implementing sustainable solid waste financing mechanisms or other waste reduction, reuse and recycling initiatives, the DEEP says.

Branford, $6,000 – Branford implemented the third year of a holiday recycling program aimed at educating residents on the importance of collecting the excess wrapping paper and gift waste for recycling.

Bridgewater, $3,990 – Bridgewater is applying grant funds toward a guard shed at the town’s recycling facility that will allow for staff to provide recycling and reuse education and to monitor incoming loads and minimize contamination. The town’s public space recycling program also will purchase new recycling bins.

Columbia, $4,750 – Columbia is implementing a residential organics drop-off program at sites throughout the town and will provide workshops and educational outreach to encourage widespread participation. Remaining grant funds will be used to purchase and test green cleaning products for municipal buildings.

Greenwich, $20,000 – Greenwich is applying grant funds towards Leaves: Nature’s Treasures, a school and community composting outreach and education program. The program includes establishing on-site food scrap and leaf compost systems for schools and educating residents about the benefits of home composting.

Hebron, $6,000 – Hebron is implementing a recycling education campaign to increase residential participation and to improve recycling rates at the transfer station.

Mansfield, $6,800 – Mansfield is implementing a Food Too Good to Waste program, modeled after a national program, in four schools to educate families about preventing food waste, proper food storage and preparation strategies and buying and eating what is bought.

Ridgefield, $13,000 – Ridgefield is launching a residential organics drop-off program at the municipal recycling center. Funds are being used for kitchen collection containers, rental of a dumpster to keep food scraps separated and educational materials.

These grants are the second round of funding DEEP has provided in recent months. In August 2015, DEEP announced $45,000 in recycling grants for seven communities.

DEEP says it is focused on a 21st century materials management strategy that transforms the way Connecticut manages trash and recycling. The goals are to reduce the volume of trash that must be disposed of by doubling the state’s recycling rate to 60 percent by 2024 and reclaiming more materials of value from the waste stream. Through this approach, DEEP says the environmental impacts and costs associated with waste disposal can be reduced while conserving resources and new “green” jobs in Connecticut.

PSI announces guest speaker for 2016 Specifications Summit

Hyundai Merchant Marine America president and CEO to speak at February event.

Arsenault is responsible for Hyundai’s business in North, Central and South America and he will be speaking after the conference lunch Thursday, Feb. 4.

The PSI Specifications Summit is the organization’s second annual conference to address changes to the definitions of scrap paper grades. More than 125 paper recycling industry professionals attended the 2015 summit in Dallas, and PSI says it is expecting at least 200 mill buyers, brokers, MRF (material recovery facility) operators, equipment vendors and trade association representatives to attend the 2016 event which will be at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.

Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS), headquartered in West Chicago, Illinois, has earned ISO 9001:2015 certification at all sites in the United States. SRS holds ISO 9001:2008 certification at sites across the globe and recently added this latest 2015 version of the standard at all of its U.S. sites. As SRS continues to expand its information technology asset management (ITAM) services, this certification enables improvements to the customer experience while ensuring products and services meet statutory and regulatory requirements, the company says.

The ISO 9001 standard outlines a set of requirements for organizations to maintain their quality management systems. Every five years all ISO standards are reviewed to determine if a revision is required. This most recent revision includes improvements to the structure to make it easier to use in conjunction with other management system standards. The 2015 version also holds a new concept that focuses on risk-based thinking and preventing undesirable outcomes, SRS says.

“As a service focused on managing the destruction of some of our client’s most sensitive data, we take our system and processes very seriously, so we were pleased to learn the new ISO 9001 standard added a new concept of risk based thinking,” says Steve Skurnac, SRS president. “We are proud to be one of the first organizations in the industry to achieve this new version of the standard and will continue to search for opportunities for continuous improvement.”

SRS says ISO 9001:2015 certification is the one of the initial steps it is taking to redirect certification resources to improve the company’s industry leading data destruction and secure information management activities.

Meeting examines using technology to address issues with e-scrap recycling

The same technologies that help us locate missing cellphones and pets, unlock our car doors, pay tolls and do countless other things may be able to help us better understand what happens to electronics at the end of their lives, according to TransparentPlanet.

Jan. 12, 2016, the U.S. federal government and other stakeholders will discuss how to leverage technology to meet federal goals for tracking flows of electronics and to advance e-recycling in the U.S.

Participants in this virtual meeting will learn how to engage in U.S. policy decisions on tracking flows of e-scrap and how to benefit from advanced material tracking technologies.

Speakers include representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Association (EPA), the Association for Identification and Mobility, the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (currently implementing a tracking system for information technology assets), original equipment manufacturers and e-scrap supply chain auditors.

TransparentPlanet will host the meeting in cooperation with the EPA and with the support of AIM and the RAIN RFID Alliance, leading global organizations representing the automatic identification and data capture industries.

Registration fees apply with the exception of government and NGO participants, whose registration is complimentary. Members of AIM, RAIN and e-Stewards (e-recycler certification) are eligible for discounts. The full agenda and registration is available at www.TransparentPlanetLLC.com.

Under the National Strategy for Electronic Stewardship (NSES), the U.S. federal government has committed to improve tracking of federal electronics throughout their life cycles and to establish an approach to gather, track and provide public access to information on quantities and movement of electronics within the U.S.